CVE-2013-2144 in Enterprise Virtualization Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager (RHEVM) before 3.2 does not properly check permissions for the target storage domain, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (disk space consumption) by cloning a VM from a snapshot.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/03/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-2144 affects Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager versions prior to 3.2, representing a critical permission validation flaw that undermines the integrity of storage domain access controls. This issue stems from insufficient validation mechanisms within the RHEVM management interface that fail to properly verify whether users possess adequate permissions to access specific storage domains when performing virtual machine operations. The flaw specifically manifests during the process of cloning virtual machines from snapshots, where the system does not adequately enforce access restrictions on target storage domains.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability allows authenticated attackers with limited privileges to exploit a permission bypass mechanism that enables them to perform unauthorized operations on storage resources. When a user attempts to clone a virtual machine from a snapshot, the RHEVM system should validate that the user has appropriate write permissions to the target storage domain before proceeding with the operation. However, due to the flawed permission checking implementation, the system permits operations that would normally be restricted, enabling malicious users to consume disk space on target storage domains without proper authorization. This behavior constitutes a privilege escalation vulnerability that can be leveraged for denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple permission bypass, as it creates opportunities for attackers to consume significant disk space resources on storage domains that they should not have access to. This resource consumption can lead to complete denial of service conditions where legitimate users cannot perform necessary virtual machine operations due to insufficient storage capacity. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous in multi-tenant environments where different users or organizations share the same virtualization infrastructure, as it allows unauthorized users to deplete storage resources that belong to other tenants or projects. The attack vector requires only authentication to the RHEVM management interface, making it accessible to users who have legitimate access to the system but should not be able to perform operations on specific storage domains.
Security professionals should note that this vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which describes improper access control mechanisms, and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1499.001 for resource hijacking through disk space consumption. The flaw represents a fundamental breakdown in the principle of least privilege that should be enforced within virtualization management systems. Organizations using RHEVM versions prior to 3.2 should immediately implement mitigations including updating to version 3.2 or later, implementing additional monitoring for unauthorized storage domain access attempts, and reviewing user permission assignments to minimize the potential impact of this vulnerability. Network segmentation and additional logging mechanisms should be deployed to detect and prevent exploitation attempts, while regular security audits should verify that proper access controls remain in place. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper permission validation in virtualization environments where resource management and access controls directly impact system availability and security posture.